What do I do when I am offline?

What do I do when I am offline?

Well, you’ll not be surprised to know that I spend at least 60% of my life being online. It’s hard, and one that I hope will get better by time the more “out there” I become. I’m hoping I will have more time to spend with my Wife and Son, but for now, establishing myself as a Brand and Authority figure is taking up quite a lot of my time. But, I never know. Perhaps it will get easier. I hope!

During weekdays, you’ll never see me online before 9am. That’s because I’m getting Alex ready, and taking him to School. I let my wife sleep in because she doesn’t get much sleep at night. Back pain is a complete bitch. And, at times after I have taken Alex to school I have been known to venture to the beach or somewhere local that’s very picturesque. I haven’t done it in a while, but summer is just around the corner so I’ll be starting again. I’m a hobbyist photographer. I have a DSLR and go around snapping pictures of the local wildlife and landscapes.

The next time I’m offline would be when I pick Alex up from school. It’s only a fifteen-minute thing, though, he’s very close and it’s walkable distance. Even though I ashamedly take the car. You’ll also never see me online at dinner time to bedtime during the weekdays because this is where we all join together as a family. We have dinner together, then I play games with Alex whilst Natalie tidies up in the Kitchen. We’ll also chillax and either watch TV, or shove on the Xbox to see if we can build another amazing structure on Minecraft. Alex is a little sweetheart. I bath him and put him to bed.

During the hours of 7:30 until around 9:30 is probably the only time that Natalie and I come together and relax. We chill, and watch something on TV. Recently we’ve been watching a lot of Prison Break, Boardwalk Empire and The Blacklist. And, it’s the time of year when Game of Thrones is on so we watch that too. We sit apart. Like a settled old man, I have my own armchair where I sit in my dressing gown, slippers and puff from my early 1900’s pipe.. haha. Only joking. But yes, we sit separately, comfortable with our own space, and enjoy talking to each other on and off whilst watching whatever is on.

Natalie lets me sleep in on the weekends. Usually, I won’t wake up until at least 10:00am and that’s bliss. Then we’ll play games and have fun with Alex until lunch time. After lunch, we’re either out in the garden maintaining it in some form or playing bubbles with Alex in it. We can be out at the beach, or the park, or wherever. It’s getting close to summer so hopefully we’ll be making more trips further afield. Which will be fun! Need to set those fun, happy memories with Alex. You’ll rarely see me online at the weekend except at night. I may be briefly naughtily scouting my mobile for the latest updates but it’s few and far between.

Natalie’s Grandmother is unwell and dying in the hospital, which has us booked up on Sunday. We usually head off to visit her on a Sunday and spend the day with her. I usually end up keeping Alex busy in the cafeteria with his Grandpa (Natalie’s Dad), we keep him pleasantly occupied until it’s time to go home.

I occasionally visit my friends in Leiston, Ben and Sue from time to time on the weekends. But it’s few and far between. And randomly. I wish I could see them more but we’re just so busy right now it’s hard to get a night off to go and chill. I visited them a couple of weeks ago and that was totally awesome. We sat around the fire and told tales of times long gone. I miss that. I wish we were all closer. But it was me that made the choice to move in with Natalie. There were more jobs up this way and better prospects. In Leiston, there were nothing but dead end jobs and part time work in the co-op back then.

I try and get out as much as I can but lately it’s been hard. I want to focus on my blog and I want to make a success of it. I feel it, I feel it with a passion that it’s destined for great things. The sacrifices I’ve had to make so far haven’t been the easiest, to keep this running. To plough ahead with my vision, my goal. I am sure something will come of it. And when it begins to gain traction I’ll start going out more. Perhaps walking for longer, and visiting more people. I’m not saying that I’m lonely, though. Natalie satisfies every need that I can think of.

I guess I’m just saying that I miss old friends.

But, like everything in life that can be rectified. The more effort you put into something the better it will be. So when the time comes I can put better efforts into long-term friendships and bonding more with other people.

Thank you for reading this,

Raymond.

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I'm a man that's been through the pitfalls and elations of relationships in my ever growing quest to better my knowledge in the human condition. I've been in the game and around the Internet since 1996 and surprisingly I'm still using it today. I've definitely found myself in some weird and wonderful places and I hope to share all of this with you lucky people.